While painting the fresco “The Last Supper” in the refectory of one monastery, Leonardo da Vinci spent hours wandering the streets of Milan, peering into the faces of passers-by. So, from life, the painter painted the faces of the apostles Bartholomew, James, Andrew, Peter, John, Thomas, Philip, Matthew, Simon, Judas Thaddeus, Simon. And I still couldn’t find sitters for the images of Christ and Judas Iscariot.
One day during a service, Leonardo saw the perfect image of Christ in a young singer in the church choir. The artist invited the singer to the studio and made several sketches in which Jesus appeared as if alive.
The image of Judas remained unfinished. For three long years Leonardo searched for a suitable sitter. It seemed that there were no slums, outbacks or seedy places in Milan that the master would not bypass in a vain search. And the authorities kept urging Leonardo to finish the fresco as soon as possible. One day luck smiled at him. He found a man whose image was suitable for the fresco. Dirty, ragged, drunk, he was lying in the gutter. Leonardo ordered his assistants to carry it straight to the monastery, because he no longer had time for sketches in the workshop.
He painted with a brush all the vices that breathed in this young, but prematurely aged face - selfishness, embitterment, malice, pride... Waking up from a drunken stupor, the sitter looked at the fresco of Christ and said with melancholy in his voice:
- But I know this picture!
- How can you know her? — Leonardo asked in bewilderment.
— Three years ago, when I was a singer in a choir, and there was no place for sins in my life, one artist painted Christ from me...
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru